Bottle vending machine



March 1942- A. E. ASCHERIS 1- AL 2,273,052

' BOTTLE VENDING MACHINE Filed Oct; 30, 1940 I 2 .Sheets-Shet 1 INVENTQR. a, 14 uyusf EAsc/vervs BY Way/7e L 601767/"6/ A T TORNEY March 31, 1942.

A. E. ASCHERIS ET AL ,0

BOTTLE VENDING MACHINE Filed 00f. 30, 1940 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 fi I II-\IVENTOR.

I Woo/255mg? BY ayne 60/70! ATTORNEY Patented Mar. 31, 1942 BOTTLE VENDIN G MACHINE August E. Ascheris, Long Beach, and Wayne L.

Leonard, Los Angeles, Calif.; said Leonard assignor'to said Ascheris Application October 30, 1940, Serial No. 363,404

--.3 Claims. Our invention relates to vending machines,

and has for its principal object to provide a vending machine for bottled goods that will per mit a customer to see all of the bottles that con" tain beverages that are for sale, but prevent the purchaser from having access to more than one bottle, upon placing a coin in the machine.

Another object of the invention is to provide 7 in such a vending machine means to prevent the opening of a door, by which access is obtained to the goods in the machine; until a coin is deposited therein. Another object-of the invention is to provide a rotary top for refrigerated boxes now in use, in order that the boxes may be used to vend different beverages and still permit the customer to choose which one he desires.

Still a further object is to provide means to prevent rotation of such top while the door, which provides access to the bottles, is open. The invention also has for its objects to provide positiveness in operation, convenience in use, im-' proved structure, facility in installing the pres ent device in coolers already built, economy of manufacture, relative simplicity, general superiority, and serviceability.

'The invention also comprises novel details of construction and novel combinations and arrangements of parts, which will more fully appear in the course of the following description.

However, the drawings merely show and the following description merely des'cribes one embodiment of the present invention, which is given by way of illustration or example only.

In the drawings, like reference characters designate similar parts in the several views.

Figure 1 is a plan view of an embodiment of our invention.

Figure 2 is a vertical section taken on the line 2-2 of Figure 1, but showing the coin box'in elevation.

Figure 3 is an enlarged horizontal sectional viewunder the rotary top comprised in the embodiment.

Figure 4 .is an enlarged line 4-4 of Figure 3.

Figure 5 is an enlarged section taken on the line 5-5 of Figure 1.

Referring more in detail to the drawings, reference numeral 6 generally designates a cooler or section taken on the refrigerated box of conventional construction known to those skilled in the art. The box per se does not form part of the present invention. A top 1' for the box has a rotary cover 8 provided with handles 9 for manually rotating same.

A coin controlled mechanism I is mounted shaft I9.

upon the cover 8 and rotates therewith. Details of the coin controlled mechanism III are believed to need no further explanation than hereinafter given, since any suitable coin controlled mechanism, well known to those skilled in the art, will suflice. The mechanism ID has a coin slot l2 in the side thereof and a return pocket i3 for spurious slugs. A knob l4 controls a rod which carries a rack |6 thereunder. The rack l6 engages with a suitably mounted pinion gear H. An opposing pinion gear I8 is mounted on a A genuine coin that is not rejected by the mechanism It bridges the gap between the pinions I! and I8, so that withdrawal of the knob I4 and the consequent longitudinal movement of the rack It, causes simultaneous rotation of the pinions I1 and I8.

A star gear is mounted on the lower end of r the shaft l9, and its perimeter engages recesses hinged door 33.

2| in a reciprocating block 22. Parallel bars 23 are mounted on the block 22' by means of set screws 24. Thestar gear 20 has slots 25 through which the coins may successively drop after the coins. have been utilized to effect said rotation of the star gear. The coins fall into a box 26 below such gear. The box 26 has a flange 51 fastened to the-under side of a platform 58 that rotates with the cover 8. V

Movement of the block 22 to the right in Figure 3 isresisted by means of springs 21 coiled about the bars 23. One end of each spring is hooked into an opening 28 in the bars, and the other end of the springs 2! abuts against bearings 29 on a hatch frame 30. 3| of the bars 23 project inward toward each other. When the block 22 is at its left hand position, as shown in Figure 3, the bent ends 3| engage sockets on lugs 32 depending from a When the bent ends 3| are engaged with said lugs, the door 33 islheld in a closed position. However, when the rods are moved longitudinally to the right in Figure 3, the bent ends 3| are also moved to the right from the position shown in Figure 2. This unlocks the door, permitting it to be moved to the open position shown in Figure 5. A spring 34 coiled on the hinge pin 35 of the door tends to move the door to the open position at all times. The door 33 has a window 36 of glass, Lucite, or other transparent material, which permits the purchaser .to examine the contents within the box by rotating the cover 8. Caps 3! of beverage containing bottles are indicated through the window 36 of Figure 1. It will be noted that in any position of the cover 8, only Bent ends '6. A plate 6| position whenever the pin of the openings of the stationary casting. The spring 41 tends to effect movement of the pin 46 one bottle will be removable through the hatch when the door 33 is open. This staggered arrangement of the containers 60 is effected by a stationary basket (not shown) within the box having staggered openings 62 is arranged in the basket. Bottles 66 are arranged in the irregularly arranged openings. Of course the openings are arranged throughout the area of the plate. Any suitable plate that maintains the bottles in the staggered arrangement, so that only one bottle may be re-.

moved when the door is open, will be sufficient.

The irregular shape of the inner surface 38 of the hatch frame 30 aids in preventing the unauthorized withdrawal of bottles through the hatch, since it is intended that only one bottle may be removed each time the door 33 is opened.

A flange 39 on the door 33 is fastened around the hinge pin 35, and is movable'therewith. Also fastened on the hinge pin is a segmental gear 40, which meshes with spur gear 4| on a parallel shaft 42. A rack 43 meshes with the spur gear 4|. The, directions of movements of the. segmental gear 40, the spur gear 4|, andthe rack 43, when the door 33 is moving to its opening position, in the direction of the arrow A of Figure -5, is shown by the arrows on these gear means, in Figure 5.

The outer end 44 tured head 45. A locking pin 46 is movable inthe aperture of the head 45. A coil spring 41 abuts against a collar 48 fastened on the pin 46, tending to move the pin 46 outward into a looking position. A bearing the pin 46 and provides an the collar 48, for the spring 41. is fastened to the rack end 44.

A stationary cylindrical casting 50 has a series of openings 5|. The rotary cover 8 is locked in '46 is moved into any abutment, opposed to The bearing 49 to any of its said locking positions. A rim 52 on the cover 8 rotates upon rollers 53 having fixed axes 54. The axes 54 are provided by depending lugs 55 on the stationary casting 50.

The rim 52 has a circumferential series of notches which are engaged by a spring 1atch56. This spring latch provides a clicking sound as the cover 8 is rotated. Each one of these recesses of the rim 52 corresponds on the circumference with a position of a bottle that is accessible upon the opening of the door 33. This aids the customer in stopping the cover 8 at a position in which a bottle can be removed after the door is opened.

In the operation of our device, of course the beverage containing bottles are placed in the cooler 6 in proper position so that they will be in such a staggered arrangement that. only one can.

of the rack 43 carries an aper- 49 also slidably supportsform of construction illustrated and be removed from the opening ata time. As suggested, this can be effected by arranging a stationary basket with corresponding openings. Moreover, the box 6 is suitably iced, or connected with refrigerating means.

A purchaser drops a coin in the slot i2. If the coin is not genuine; it is rejected by the mechanism Hi and returned in the return pocket I3. If the coin is genuine, it bridges the gap between the gears l1 and it, so that withdrawal of the knob M and its bar i5 and rack 16, causes simultaneous rotation of the gears l1 and I8, thus rotating the star gear 2c. The latter gear, through the intermediary of the block22 and the bars 23, move the ends 3| to an unlocking posispring 41, into engagement tion with respect to the door 33. The door 33 is thereby released, permitting the coiled spring 34 to move the door to an opened position.

This opening movement of the door 33 causes the segmental gear 40, spur gear 4|, and rack 43 to move in the directions of the arrows that they bear in Figure 5. This movementof the rack 43 permits the 'pin 46 to be urged, by means of the with an opening 5| in the stationary casting 50. This looks the rotary cover 8 relative to the rest of the box 6. The clicks of the spring these locking positions and also correspond with the accessible positions of the bottles at the door opening..

The locking by the pin 46 prevents the customer from removing more than one bottle for the single coin.

After the desired bottle has been removed, the door 33 is again closed able to the next desired bottle station; While the door 33 is closed, the customer, by means of the handles 9, may rotate the cover 8, in order to examine all of the contents of the cooler, whereby he may decide which kind of beverage he prefers.

The irregular, staggered arrangement-of the bottle stations permits a large capacity for the cooler 6 and yet permits several of the bottle caps to be. seen at the same time through the window 36, even though only one bottle may be removed.

While we have illustrated and described what we now regard as the preferred embodiment of our invention, the construction is, of course, subjeet to modifications without departing from the spirit and scope of our invention. We, therefore, do not wish to restrict ourselves to the particular described, but desire to avail ourselves of all modifications which may fall within the scope of the appended claims. 7

Having thus described our invention, what we claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. In a coin controlled dispensing apparatus, a cabinet having a cover support including a stationary annulus provided with a circumferential series of apertures; a cover therefor including a rim portion adjacent and opposing said annulus and having a hatch through which goods may be removed from the cabinet, roller means-carried by said annulus on which said rim portion is disposed for thus holding the cover in normally freely rotatable relation in the cover support, a door hinged to close said hatch, manually releasable means automatically engagingand locking said door in closed position, a radially slidable rack bar supported by and beneath the cover, a latch pin carried by and movable with said rack bar for extension into an aperture of the annulus and retraction therefrom to respectively lock the cover against, and release the same for, rotation in its support, and gear means between the door and said rack bar for positively shifting the latter to extended position when the door is opened and to retracted position when the door is closed.

2. In a coin controlled dispensing apparatus, a

cabinet having a cover support and its top ineluding a stationary annulus provided with a circumferential series of apertures, a cover rotathatch, a radially slidable latch 56 correspond with.

and the cover 8 is rotatr hinged door and said rack bar for shifting the latter to extended active position when the door sfi'p' ned, and to retracted inactive position when the'door is closed, means for automatically latching the door when closed, including latch members carried by the door, and spring controlled latch bars carried by and beneath the cover and engageable with said latch members, and manually operable means on the cover for shifting said latch bars to release the door for opening movement.

3. A coin controlled dispensing apparatus as set forth in claim 2, wherein the door carries a rigid hinge pin supporting one of the rack bar actuating gears, there being a spring also supported on and engaging the'hinge pin of the door for automatically opening the door when its latching meansare released.

AUGUST E. ASCHERIS.

WAYNE L. LEONARD. 

